Texas killer gets last-hour reprieve

ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 22, 2012

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FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Bell County Sheriff's Department via The Temple Daily Telegram shows Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting. In a document filed on behalf of Col. Gregory Gross, attorneys contend that forcibly shaving Hasan would not violate the American-born Muslim's religious freedoms. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces delayed the start Hasan's court-martial to consider the question of whether he should be forcibly shaved. (AP Photo/Bell County Sheriff's Department via The Temple Daily Telegram, File) less

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Bell County Sheriff's Department via The Temple Daily Telegram shows Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting. In a ... more

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FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows John Balentine. He is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 for a 1998 triple homicide in Amarillo, Texas. Balentine, 42, was convicted for killing three Amarillo teenagers as they slept. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice, File) less

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows John Balentine. He is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 for a 1998 triple homicide in Amarillo, Texas. ... more

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Texas killer gets last-hour reprieve

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HUNTSVILLE - The U.S. Supreme Court again halted the scheduled execution of a Texas inmate convicted of a triple murder less than an hour before he could have been taken to the death chamber Wednesday.

Justices decided to stop the punishment of John Balentine, condemned for fatally shooting three teenage housemates in Amarillo in 1998.

Balentine also came within an hour of death a year ago, and the high court took the same action on an appeal that ultimately was rejected. In 2009, he won a reprieve a day before his death date.

The high court said it wants to consider Balentine's petition for a review.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Balentine, who was in a small cell near the death chamber when the court action came down, was laughing and smiling when Clark approached him about the decision.

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Balentine, from Newport, Ark., already had a long record in his home state when he was arrested in Houston six months after the bodies of three teens were found at a house in January 1998.

Guilt not disputed

His guilt was not an issue in court appeals.

Balentine's lawyer, Lydia Brandt, argues his legal help was deficient at his 1999 trial and in his early appeals. Lawyers failed to uncover evidence of Balentine's abusive and poor childhood that could have brought him life in prison instead of death, Brandt contends.

In his early appeals, Brandt says Balentine's lawyers didn't question those aspects of his trial defense, and contends that a recent ruling in an Arizona death penalty case should open the door for justices to stop Balentine's execution and allow for a review of his case.

Counter arguments

Lawyers for the state have disputed Brandt's arguments, saying her client's trial lawyers decided not to use character witnesses because they would have described Balentine as hostile. They also argue that the Arizona case can't be applied because its law differ greatly from that in Texas.

Balentine fatally shot Mark Caylor Jr., 17, and 15-year-olds Kai Brooke Geyer and Steven Watson. Caylor was the brother of Balentine's ex-girlfriend. Prosecutors said a feud between Caylor and Balentine led to the teens' deaths in the house where Balentine once lived.

At least nine other Texas inmates have execution dates for the coming months, including two in September